To obey authority figures, people will go to great, and sometimes dangerous, lengths. Stanley Milgram, a psychologist, discovered in his famous obedience experiments that people would be willing to deliver a potentially fatal electrical shock to another person if the experimenters ordered them to.

The United States government physically poisoned booze during Prohibition. When individuals continued to drink alcohol despite its prohibition, law enforcement authorities were dissatisfied and decided to try a different form of deterrent—death. They directed the poisoning of industrial alcohols made in the United States, which were frequently stolen by bootleggers. The federal poisoning operation is estimated to have killed at least 10,000 individuals by the end of Prohibition in 1933.

According to research, the average attention span has shrunk by 12 minutes in the last decade. Human attention spans are now shorter than those of goldfish. Some research has even found a link between device multitasking — such as scrolling through social media while watching TV — and declining attention spans.

According to World Tourism Organization statistics, Mexico has the greatest number of international tourists in Latin America and is rated #10 in the world. This is unsurprising considering the variety of culture and environment on offer in Mexico. UNESCO has designated 32 places in the nation as World Cultural Heritage sites. Mexico tops the American continent in this area once more, and is ranked sixth overall.

Men have selective hearing, it's a fact! They can only listen to their female partners for 6 minutes, but this time is more than doubled to 15 minutes when they talk to their male friends. Before you start blaming men for their lack of attention, keep in mind that women pay more attention to conversations with their friends than to conversations with their romantic partners.

The Salem witch trials took place between February 1692 and May 1693 in Salem, Massachusetts. Nearly 200 individuals, including the destitute, the elderly, and a four-year-old kid, were accused of witchcraft. The vast majority were imprisoned, and some were executed by hanging. However, none of these people were ever burned alive.

There are many misconceptions surrounding Washington, but one of the most common has to do with his teeth. Washington is commonly assumed to have had wooden dentures. This is not at all the case. While Washington had severe oral issues and wore dentures, wood was never employed as a material.

If you're using romantic whispers to impress a potential partner, make sure to speak into his or her left ear. An MITCogNet study discovered that when emotion stimuli were delivered to the left ear, recall accuracy was more than 6% higher than when the same stimuli were delivered to the right ear.

This curiosity has a social explanation rather than a scientific one. For centuries, society and the media have pushed women to hold themselves to a certain standard, whether it's small feet or a perky behind, and the majority of women have chosen stylish presentation over comfort.

Fetuses with short protuberances have been observed as early as 16 weeks of gestation. While there haven't been enough studies to determine why this happens, some point to the age-old "use it or lose it" theory—the Los Angeles Times reported that periodic movements are required to keep the penile tissue oxygenated and healthy.

When Chaim Weizmann, Israel's first president, died in 1952, the Prime Minister invited Einstein to fill the (mostly ceremonial) office. The scientist said no, writing: "I am extremely affected by our State of Israel's offer, and I am both heartbroken and humiliated that I cannot accept it. I've spent my whole life dealing with objective issues, therefore I lack both the natural ability and the expertise to deal with people and carry out official tasks."

You may have noticed that women take more risks than men, and there is a scientific reason for this. Women have a larger anterior cingulate cortex than men, which is the part of the brain that weighs options when making a decision. Some argue that this was evolution's way of making women better caregivers and saving the "tribe" when it came to gathering food and establishing social structures.

Though concluding definitively that colour affects a person's psyche has proven difficult, there have been a plethora of studies — some official, some not so official — that have come close. These investigations date back to the 1930s, when neurologist Kurt Goldstein began experimenting with colour and appearance. Goldstein discovered, for example, that people automatically assume red objects are heavier, while green objects are lighter.

A translator rewrote the story in the 1600s. When the prince attempted to follow Cinderella, Aschenputtel (Cinderella) lost her left shoe at the stairwell.

Boys, more than girls, are more likely than girls to learn many lessons through experience rather than being told. This can make parenting them difficult, especially if you don't enjoy taking risks yourself. The most difficult challenge may be keeping them safe, so some risks must be avoided. It can also be difficult to be a support person as a parent when the lessons that boys learn bring hardship and tears.

Italy was a dictatorship until 1945, while having a royal dynasty until 1946. Following WWII, the country decided to become a republic, and King Umberto II governed briefly from May 9 to June 12, 1946. He spent the rest of his days in exile in Portugal. In Italy, he is regarded as "the May King," a reference to his exceptionally brief rule.

According to the National Library of Medicine in the United States, 12% of people only dream in black and white. People under the age of 25 say they almost never dream in black and white, whereas people over the age of 55 say they dream in colour about 75% of the time.

Ancient Egyptians regarded cats to be sacred creatures. Most households are said to have kept a cat as a pet because they felt it would bring them good luck!

You may or may not be aware that love can result in strong infatuation. The same serotonin levels reported in persons with obsessive-compulsive disorder, an anxiety disorder, are found in those with infatuation. This is most likely why you can't seem to think of anyone else while you're in love.

Martin Lotze, a German researcher, studied the brains of both professional athletes and professional writers and discovered that their brain activity during athletic competition and the writing process was very similar. Lotze discovered an interesting difference between professional and amateur writers: professional writers used their speech-processing centres of the brain to develop their stories, whereas amateur writers relied on their vision centres to imagine the story first.

Researchers at Arizona State University made the ground-breaking discovery that the ability to see red in all its glory is frequently gender-dependent. There is a gene that allows people to see and interpret red and its related colours such as cardinal, maroon, crimson, and so on, and that gene is linked to the x-chromosome. Because women are born with two x chromosomes, they have a better ability to see the entire red spectrum, whereas men, with a single x chromosome, aren't necessarily equipped to tell the difference between red and, say, cardinal.

The amount of bourbon barrels in Kentucky outnumbers the state's population by more than two million. That's quite a bit of bourbon. Kentucky is the home of bourbon and produces 95 percent of the world's supply.

During the first year of being in a romance, a protein in our cells called Nerve Growth Factor (NGF) that is vital for the functions of particular sympathetic and sensory nerve cells, appears to thrive. During youthful love, our senses are heightened, and our fight or flight reaction system is activated.

Official statistics show that over half of all persons up to the age of 64 have the equivalent of a high school graduation, significantly below the OECD average of nearly 75%. Younger generations, on the other hand, are defying the trend, with 65 percent of millennials obtaining the certificate — and the number is climbing.